Featured Artist Lisa Goesling

Enjoy the fragile beauty of Lisa Goesling’s nature-inspired portfolio, and be sure to visit her website for more from this talented artist.

 

 

Endlessly inspired by nature’s designs, I begin each day excited to create.

 

 

I generally work on several pieces at a time. Often there is a commissioned piece that needs attention and countless more ideas waiting to be realized. They tend to be seasonal, since I work from what is unfolding before me.

 

 

Current commissions include a drawing of a Pussy Willow and a Coleus. My process includes scratching away at boards made of clay and a layer of India ink. When desired, I paint with colored inks at the very end of the process. The Pussy Willow will have just a bit of color, the Coleus will be about half color and half black and white. Showing the path of creation is an important component of my art.

 

 

I just completed Cut Cabbage and am now tackling a single Brussels sprout. It was helpful to have my magnifying glass so that I could carefully separate the leaves to make it look like a flower just about to open.

 

 

As my art evolves, I find myself creating more abstract renditions of every day objects, like kale or cabbage, which are rarely seen as an art form. I invite the viewer to discover how the ordinary can be transformed into something extraordinary.

 

 

Spending most of my career as an art director/designer, I am hypersensitive to forms, patterns and contrast. When I was asked to create a wine label for Encendido Wine of Argentina, I concentrated on the physical structure of a grape leaf. The art is both simple and intensely detailed as with all of my art, striving to create energy through the constant movement of line.

 

 

Raising the lowly Queen Anne’s Lace or revering the sophisticated Full Orchid accomplishes the same goal, creating dimension through line.

 

 

The images are lifted right off of the page by layering one shape over another.

 

 

In my estimation, composition is the most important element in art. I personally do not create initial sketches but I do spend a lot of time studying my subject visualizing the finished piece.

 

 

Because I like to use a magnifying glass to see what is truly going on, my art tends to be consumed with microscopic details. No matter how many times it’s viewed, people always discover something unexpected.

 

 

Adding color creates a whole new dimension. The multiple shapes ranging from large to small covered in a variety of yellows and oranges, gives Marigold a sense of power. And you cannot help but to come in for a closer look when viewing Composition of a Coleus. The rich tones of the coleus’ deep purples and greens create the feeling of being enveloped by nature.

 

Lisa Goesling invites you to follow her on Facebook.